


Rainy Days

by virdanfalls



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Writing & Publishing, F/F, Interns & Internships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-20 04:51:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11913591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virdanfalls/pseuds/virdanfalls
Summary: Today is Professional Development Day, a day full of introductory presentations for new interns and returning tutors.  Yachi is nervous about starting her new internship at the writing center, but maybe a certain dark-haired girl can help her calm down just a bit.**I'm sorry I suck at summaries.  Yachi is an intern at her university's writing center, and she meets a helpful tutor at orientation day. Yachi is very gay.**





	Rainy Days

**Author's Note:**

> So this au is based off of my own experience with my internship. The program involves applying to get into a class for the internship for the writing center on campus. All majors are welcomed, although experience with writing and grammar is encouraged. 
> 
> An intern will take a weekly class, along with volunteering in the writing center. If they pass the class with high marks, they can be offered a paying job at the writing center as a tutor (Kiyoko, Kuroo, and Akaashi are paid tutors in this au). If you have any questions about this au, feel free to ask! All of the haikyuu characters in this are university students. Yachi knows Yamaguchi and Tsukishima from high school!
> 
> The characters refer to each other by their first name because this AU is set in an American university.
> 
> I hope that was helpful information. This is my first kiyoyachi, so I hope you enjoy it!

Yachi Hitoka was a girl of many emotions - most of them mixed with anxiety and discomfort. Today was a day full of anxiety for her. She was admitted to a writing internship through her university last week, right before fall classes began. She had to rearrange several classes to make the times work in her schedule, but she had really wanted to make it work. And make it work she did, even if it meant switching her schedule to afternoon and night classes.

She had stayed up the night before stressing about this day. She was to attend the Professional development day in the writing center, to meet the writing center staff and learn about her new position as a writing center intern and tutor. She paced through her tiny dorm, keeping her roommate, Eri Miyanoshita, wide awake.

“Hitoka!” Eri finally said, turning her face from her laptop, which was playing Voltron: Legendary Defender on Netflix. “What is bothering you, and how can I help so you’ll stop pacing?” Her tone was slightly annoyed and slightly amused. Hitoka was grateful that Eri was her roommate, because she was usually understanding of her anxious habits. Tonight was one of those times.

“I don’t know what to wear!!” Yachi lamented, furiously moving the hangers in her closet. “I don’t know the dress code! What if I show up all dressed up and everyone is in jeans? What if I show up in jeans and everyone is all dressed up? Should I wear heels?!” She slouched to the ground sighing. “I should’ve never applied for that internship in the first place.”

“Don’t say that Hitoka.” Eri got up from her bed and joined her by her closet. “How about this?” She pulled a navy blue polka dot blouse from the far right of her closet.

“I can’t wear that though! I don’t have slacks and I don’t want to wear jeans-”

“Do you have a skirt?”

“Yes..”

“Let’s see it, then.” Yachi scanned her closet, quickly picking her long black skirt from the depths of its contents. “This looks like it’ll match.” Eri said cheerily, clapping her hands as she spoke, still holding the navy blue blouse. “What do you think?”

Hitoka nodded slowly, averting her gaze from Eri’s bright eyes. “I think it’ll work. It’s not too formal, but not exactly casual.”

“A nice compromise.” Eri smiled, handing her the blouse. “Feel better now?”

“Yeah.” Yachi returned the smile, again feeling happy that she had Eri as a roommate. The way she smiled at her and cared for her was so nice. _If only she wasn’t straight…_

Yachi immediately halted that train of thought.

She wasn’t stupid enough to fall for a straight girl. Again.

Yachi knew that Eri had a crush on Yamaguchi, her friend from high school that had happened to attend the same university. She encouraged their relationship, and wanted Eri to be happy really. She also was a lesbian with a very cute and supportive roommate who helped her pick out outfits and sometimes brushed the hair out of her eyes in a very platonic and straight way.

Yachi remembered how gay she was very often. More so with Eri as her roommate.

That night she couldn’t sleep because of the anxiety of the coming morning, the guilt of harboring such embarrassing feelings towards her roommate, and concern over not getting sleep. This cycle left her falling asleep sometime around 1:30am, only to be rattled awake at 7:30am, with about an hour to get ready and to the writing center. She hurriedly got dressed, grabbed a snack, braided her long hair, and applied minimal make-up - just enough to hide the bags under her eyes.

She was about to head out when she heard the pattering of heavy rain on the roof of her dorms. She turned back, and snatched her umbrella quickly. Eri sleepily mumbled ‘good luck’ as she turned over in her bed, obviously intending to catch some more sleep. Yachi bid her goodbye and rushed out the door, with only ten minutes to make the fifteen minute walk to the Blair building.

The Blair building was the English literature and professional writing building, and home to most english majors. Yachi was not an english major that knew her way around the building however. She just changed her major recently to include english. Originally, she was majoring in graphic design. However, she realized that trying to make it as art critic would require some knowledge and experience with writing, thus leading to her changing her schedule around to accommodate her new credit requirements. Thankfully, she was only a sophomore, so she didn’t have to take extra semesters to make up for lost time.

She managed to make it to the Blair building with one minute to spare, having alternated between speed-walking and running to make it in time. She was panting when she hefted the door to the building open, wincing at its weight. The doors were always just a little too heavy for her to easily open. She wondered if whoever designed those doors were trying to force English majors to exercise inadvertently.

She snapped her umbrella shut almost as soon as she clambered inside the mostly empty building. It was almost eerie to see the lobby so empty. All of the times that Yachi had been in the building last semester were during the busiest time of day, around noon. She had an introductory course for the English major to take, and though she enjoyed it, it was a lecture hall in the basement of the building. Thus, any classroom on the first floor, and beyond was alien to her. In a building with three floors and lecture halls on all of them, it was a little intimidating.

Thankfully, she knew where the writing center was. It was on the first floor, in the lobby, directly to her right. She took a deep breath, swung around, and walked stiffly into the room. She saw five other people meandering in the room, all dressed in various forms of business casual. She noticed some of them were wearing jeans and lamented at her choice of a skirt. _I’m surely overdressed!_ She thought in horror to herself.

She sighed, trying not to give into the anxiety and quickly surveyed her surroundings. Those who had arrived were seated in waiting chairs usually used for students seeking help with writing. They were chatting, some holding cups of coffee and the occasional donut. Yachi noticed they were wearing nametags, and started internally panicking about how she forgot to bring one until she noticed that there was a pile of blank nametag stickers, with a blue marker next to it. She kneeled at the table that held them, the coffee table in the middle of the room, and carefully wrote out ‘Hitoka’ on the white name tag. She peeled it off and stuck it on the front of her shirt. As soon as she left it, the corners began to stick up. She spent a minute or two trying, in vain, to smooth it down. She finally gave up and migrated to the snack table.

It held all of the components of a good staff meeting breakfast - donuts, assorted fruit, and coffee. She took a few donuts, a banana, and a hearty cup of coffee. She usually avoided caffeine because it had a chance of worsening her anxiety, but she was feeling sleep deprived today. She decided to take the risk.

As she did this, several dozen people wandered into the room. Yachi was quickly reminded of how small the waiting room for the writing center was. She leaned against the main desk, clutching her cup of coffee nervously. It seemed like every person had found a partner to chat with, except for her. She noticed some vaguely familiar faces - a boy with messy black hair that she commonly saw hanging out with Tsukishima Kei (another high school friend of hers), who was chatting with another boy with curly black hair and a stoic expression. She couldn’t remember either of their names, and neither of them wore name tags. Was she not supposed to wear a name tag?

She was jolted out of another anxiety ridden downward spiral when she heard footsteps jogging toward the writing center entrance. A girl with her hair soaked, and her outfit of a pretty pink chiffon blouse and cuffed light blue jeans in a similar state, was walking quickly through the door. She was rain-spattered from head to toe, obviously having braved the storm without an umbrella.  Panting from the run over, she had a bookbag slung over her shoulder. Her glasses were fogged and covered with raindrops.

Though she was panting, her face flushed, and her hair splayed wildly with rainwater, she was still undeniably gorgeous. Yachi was attracted to her almost immediately, thinking to herself how she managed to look effortlessly beautiful despite being simultaneously disheveled from the rainy weather. The girl met eyes with a woman Yachi had assumed to be her advisor and headed towards her, digging in her book bag, She gave her some documents, to which the woman thanked her warmly.

“Hey Kiyoko! Forget your umbrella?” The guy with the messy hair called over to her, a smirk on his face. _Kiyoko,_ Yachi thought to herself. _What a pretty name. Suits the pretty face._

“Yes, actually.” Kiyoko replied, maintaining her composure. Yachi was impressed. How could she be so calm, when she just burst in here after running through the rain?  She pulled out a cloth and began drying off her glasses as she spoke. “Nice seeing you, Tetsurou, Keiji.”

“Hello,” the other dark haired boy returned in a neutral tone, his face still revealing little emotion. Yachi guessed that he was Keiji, and the other, more loud boy was Tetsurou.

Kiyoko turned away from the pair instead of sitting with them and began to pour a cup of coffee. Yachi glanced at her once, then twice, unable to figure out how to greet her. She needed a partner to chat with, lest she look like a socially isolated idiot amongst a sea of conversing interns. She also thought Kiyoko was cute and very worth talking to. On her third furtive glance in Kiyoko’s directions, her brown eyes met dark ones in return. Kiyoko was staring at her too.

“H-hi-hiya!” Hitoka stuttered, caught off guard and only speaking as a nervous reflex. The other girl regarded her for a moment before giving her a small smile.

“Hello, Hitoka,” She said, eyeing her name tag. “I’m Kiyoko. I take it you’re a new intern?”

“How’d you know?” Hitoka asked, fearful that her stuttering had given her away.

“I know everyone around here. I’ve been a tutor for a year now, and I haven’t seen you around before. Am I right?” Kiyoko said all of this in a calm and friendly tone. Yachi began to relax as she nodded back in reply, although the bustle of the crowd around her kept a general anxiety festering in her gut.

“So have you taken the internship class before?” Hitoka queried, a little surprised with herself. She usually had trouble with small talk, but Kiyoko made it easier somehow. Maybe it was how she regarded her steadily, with an encouraging smile even when she stuttered and made a fool of herself. Either way, Hitoka already decided that she liked the other girl’s presence.

“Yeah, it’s a pretty good class. You have Tim as your instructor, right?” Kiyoko replied knowingly. Hitoka thought back to the email she had gotten, and recalled that it was sent by a Tim something. She nodded back to Kiyoko, affirming her claim. “Then you should be just fine. He makes the class fun.” She smiled at Yachi again, this time wider, more jokingly.

 _I’m so gay. So so so gay._ Yachi thought to herself, desperately trying to fight the heat rushing to her face. _Girls, especially smiling girls are the world’s greatest gift._  
  
They began to chat about their majors and year - Kiyoko was a senior majoring in Chemistry and English Literature, and Yachi shared that she was a sophomore majoring in Graphic Design and English Literature, hoping to become a writer specializing in artwork critiques. Kiyoko praised that career choice, and said that she was hoping to pursue a career as a science writer, or as a researcher. She hadn’t quite decided yet.

“Where do you live?” Kiyoko asked as their conversation about majors and careers lulled.

“Oh, over on south campus, in the commons.”

“Really? Me too. What building and floor?” Kiyoko pressed, genuine curiosity sparking in her eyes.

“Building three, floor two! What about you?”

“Building one, floor three.” Kiyoko looked more engaged in their conversation now. “Do you have phone connectivity issues too?”

“Yes!! My phone won’t take calls sometimes!” Yachi piped up truthfully.

“Nice to know it’s not just me and my roommates.” Kiyoko huffed. “The commons is a pretty nice place, it’s just so bad with phone service.”

“Yeah, it’s a pain.” Yachi agreed. Before they could discuss anything more, their supervisor called for the group of around thrity people to move to the first lecture hall.

The day was split into two parts. The first part was a main lecture featuring three main speakers, while the second part involved the interns and tutors splitting into three groups, and rotating through three stations. Each station covered a different topic.

As Yachi filed into the lecture hall behind Kiyoko, she became acutely aware of how overdressed she felt. Kiyoko wasn’t the only one wearing jeans. The blonde noticed that Tetsurou, the boy was talking to Kiyoko earlier, was wearing ripped black jeans, combat boots, a black tank top and a red flannel shirt. She definitely did not match others in terms of dress code.

Kiyoko took a seat in the third row of the lecture hall, at the end of the table. Yachi sat beside her, over thinking her outfit helplessly.

“I’m so overdressed,” she all but whispered to herself, not realizing she had spoken aloud until Kiyoko looked over at her.

“I think you look really pretty.” Kiyoko said nonchalantly, as if those very words didn’t cause Yachi’s heart to swell, and her face to turn scarlet.

“T-thank you!!” She replied, completely and utterly flustered. “I just would’ve worn pants if I had known it was more casual!”

“You can wear jeans to the writing center, even if you’re working,” Kiyoko explained, a little amused. “I mean, most people work in between classes, so they have to accommodate a more casual dress code. I’ve even worn leggings without being told to change, so they’re pretty relaxed.”

Yachi couldn’t find it in her to reply, and thankfully, the first speaker began talking, meaning she didn’t have to. The thought of Kiyoko in leggings kept popping up in her useless lesbian head, as she tried to focus on the instructor’s words. She finally pulled out a notebook from her purse, trying to take notes to stay focused. However, she began absentmindedly doodling in her margins - pictures of smiling blushing faces, faces with glasses and dark hair…  
She slammed her notebook shut, before Kiyoko could see her doodles and realize what they might mean. Focusing was a near impossible task.

Her eyes kept sliding over to the girl beside her, who was attentively listening to the speaker. Her hair was almost dry now, and it wasn’t frizzy in the slightest. It dried smooth and straight, even though she hadn’t styled it. It was just naturally beautiful along with the rest of Kiyoko. Hitoka noticed a mole beneath her lip, and almost cried because how, how could she look more attractive? How did she get her to talk to her? How was she not going to mess it all up-

“Thank you, Mr. Eckard. And now, with the next speaker.”

 _I need to pay attention._ Yachi commanded herself internally. She listened to the next speaker, and though she found it difficult to keep her thoughts away from Kiyoko, she managed to understand the content of the lecture. It was the police chief, Officer Oxton, explaining different emergency protocols. It was a long winded presentation, but the content was actually something Yachi found important. She commonly played out different emergency scenarios in her head, as she constantly grappled with the constant fear of accidental death.

After that, a speaker named Dr. Andrews took the podium. Her lecture was on how to help students with papers on topics that the tutor was unfamiliar with. Yachi tried her best to absorb as much information as possible from that one, because she definitely knew that she was going to have trouble if anyone came in with a paper for a science or math class. She wasn’t bad at those subjects...she just hasn’t taken a science or math class in a year, as most of her classes were in the arts and humanities.

Somehow, she made it to the end of the first part of the day. When they split into groups, however, Yachi was both ecstatic and anxious at being placed in the same group as Kiyoko.

“Guess you’re my buddy for the day then, huh?” Kiyoko joked with her lightly. Hitoka just gulped silently and nodded. She stayed quiet to prevent herself from saying something stupid.

They were given a five minute break before the first workshop started. Yachi took this opportunity to try to find the bathroom. She took a turn down a vaguely familiar hallway, and found herself surrounded by offices. She had somehow wandered down the American studies department. The signs at the next turn only pointed out large lecture halls. Thoroughly confused and lost, Yachi eventually found the bathrooms at the front of the building, after spending most of her break wandering around lost. She was resigned to the fact that she was going to be late to the first workshop.

After using the bathroom, and noticing that she was three minutes late, she began looking frantically for the right lecture hall. She walked down the hallway she thought it was, but was confused when it skipped over the number. She was looking for 1106, but the numbers jumped from 1105, to 1107, to 1113. After two more times wandering down the hallway, she realized that the elusive room 1106 was tucked away in a corner at the beginning of the hall. She tugged on the door and realized that the door was locked. However, from the small window on the door, she could see that there was a small group of people in the workshop that had already begun. She knocked once, then twice. No answer. Had she fallen into a parallel reality in which no one could hear any noise that she had created? Were they all ignoring her because they secretly hated her and wished she would just leave? Maybe she was imagining everything and this was all an elaborate dream which would soon end in an anxiety riddled moment of shame?

She took a deep breath knocked one last time, this time making sure it was loud enough for those in the classroom to hear. The door opened after a moment, the instructor standing before her, looking vaguely annoyed.

“The other door, on the left of the classroom was unlocked, Ms. Hitoka.” The professor said in a stiff voice. She obviously disliked the disruption.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize!” Yachi squeaked before hurrying quickly into the classroom, taking a seat behind Kiyoko as quietly as she could. Her face was red, although this time her blush was from pure, shameful embarrassment, instead of over a crush on a pretty girl. Hitoka found herself wishing she was blushing for the latter reason.

As if some God had taken pity on her, Yachi saw Kiyoko turn her head slightly back, her gaze meeting hers softly. She wore a sympathetic smile.

“Don’t sweat it,” she whispered. “Mrs. Vera is always a little cold.”

Yachi didn’t realize her face could turn redder, but she didn’t wait to find out, instead opting to cover it with her hands and nod dumbly at Kiyoko. She couldn’t find it in her to reply verbally. Kiyoko just turned her gaze back to the front of class, as the professor resumed her lecture on sentence cohesion and coherence.

The workshops passed by a lot more quickly than Yachi had expected. Each professor takes just a little too much time explaining their subject, leaving her little time to actually chat with Kiyoko. Instead, she’s writing down notes furiously, thinking in panic - I’m not ready to tutor people! Why did I apply for this internship? I suck at writing!

Yachi was just a little frazzled at the end of the last workshop. Apparently, it showed, as Kiyoko finally turned to face her and just gave her another sympathetic smile.

“It seems like a lot,” she admitted. “But it’s actually not as difficult as you may think. Once you start getting experience, you’ll become more confident in your abilities.”

“But what if I have no idea how to help them?” Yachi replied in a voice laced with stress. “I’m not the best at writing myself, and grammar is something I know about but not well!!”

“We don’t expect you to know everything.” She continued reassuringly. Her voice was so soothing when she spoke. Yachi felt herself visibly relax. “If you need help tutoring, you can always ask someone else, or look it up on a reference page.”

Yachi met her gaze and realized it was genuine. This girl was sincerely trying to make her feel better. She allowed herself to return the other girl’s smile. It would be okay. She was lucky enough to have made a good friend on her first day. Things were going a lot better than she had expected.

She and Kiyoko strode back to the writing center, their walking pace well-synced. They weren’t close in height, but Kiyoko walked more slowly to help out her shorter friend with keeping up.

“It looks like the rain has stopped.” Kiyoko said, looking out of a window as they passed it. The sky was a bright blue, full of fluffy white clouds. “Want to eat lunch out on the plaza?”

“S-sure!” Yachi replied quickly, in case she was imagining this moment and the opportunity would disappear as suddenly as it had arrived.

“Okay, I’ll meet you out there with my lunch then.” Kiyoko smiled, striding towards the writing center. “See you in a few.”

She was so cool. And pretty. A beautiful girl had asked Yachi Hitoka to eat lunch with her. This was surely a dream. Yachi pinched herself on the arm, once, twice, maybe three times before deciding that it was somehow real. She took a deep breath, grabbed her lunch, and found a nice place to sit on the plaza. The Blair building had a large plaza before it, sandwiched between the Winston building - which was for Education majors - and the Sedona building for the Arts.

There were small tables spread throughout the plaza. At its heart was a fountain. The seats around the tables were still a little wet. Yachi pulled out a small handkerchief, wiped off two seats, and sat down with her lunch. Her lunchbox was white and blue, with a little yellow bird in the middle. It was a general rectangular, insulated lunchbox. She pulled out its contents - a turkey sandwich, a nectarine, some iced tea, and a cup of strawberry banana yogurt.  
The other girl joined her at the table a few minutes later, commenting on how nice the weather was. She took out her own lunchbox - simple black with white trim - and began eating a sandwich herself.

They chatted about the presentations, Yachi asking Kiyoko about the different instructors, excited to learn about her new supervisors. Kiyoko gave her detailed information, happy to help her feel more comfortable with her position. The black haired girl was wiping her glasses with a cloth as Yachi changed the focus of her questions.

“So, uh, who were those guys you were talking to? In the writing center earlier?” Yachi faltered, suddenly embarrassed that she’d ask such a nosy question.

Kiyoko glanced at her, pausing for a moment to consider the question. “Tetsurou and Keiji. Tetsurou is a senior tutor, like me, and Keiji is a junior tutor. They’re both pretty alright. Tetsurou likes to tease people though, so if he tries to mess with you, don’t pay him any mind.”

“I’ll try to remember that!” Yachi noted, surprised that Kiyoko hadn’t gotten upset with her for prying or asking too much. On the contrary, Kiyoko looked quite comfortable with her, and engaged in the conversation. The way she smiled at her from time to time as they spoke let Yachi sputtering with her words, trying not to seem flustered but failing miserably. Kiyoko didn’t seem to mind.

At the end of their lunch, Kiyoko passed her phone to Yachi, an empty contact card open on its screen. “Let’s exchange numbers.” Kiyoko smiled, and for perhaps the hundredth time that day, Yachi questioned if this was really happening to. She obliged Kiyoko, quickly typing in her number. Kiyoko took the phone back and immediately sent Yachi a message from it, thus giving the blonde her number.

Kiyoko said she had to meet some friends at the library, and bid Yachi goodbye. As soon as she had turned the corner around another building, Yachi turned to her phone and called Eri, who had still been asleep.

“I met the most beautiful girl alive and she gave me her number, Eri. How am I still alive??”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to kill you myself if you wake me up before noon again on a Saturday morning.” Her roommate groaned into the speaker.

Instead of entertaining that threat, Yachi excitedly told the detailed story of how she somehow got Kiyoko’s number as she walked back to their dorm. When she returned, Eri was fully awake and ready to help her figure out some strategies on how to pursue her crush. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm thinking about continuing this one shot into a small series. Let me know what you think! Thanks so much for reading :)


End file.
